US proposal for cease-fire in Gaza gets UN Security Council backing | The Excerpt

On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: A U.S. proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza gets U.N. Security Council backing with a 14-0 vote. USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook looks at numbers around soldier suicides, and what's being done to try and prevent them. An FDA advisory panel has endorsed the experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab. USA TODAY Education Reporter Alia Wong discusses chronic absenteeism and its consequences in American schools. AI emojis? Apple unveils new developments at WWDC.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Podcasts:  True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, June 11th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, the latest around a possible ceasefire in Gaza. Plus, what's being done to prevent soldier suicides, and chronic absenteeism is plaguing America's schools.

♦

The Biden administration's proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza received the United Nations' endorsement yesterday when the Security Council voted 14-0 in favor of a resolution supporting the plan. Only Russia abstained, but did not veto. The US drafted the measure and finalized it Sunday after six days of negotiations among council members. The three-stage proposal would bring about an immediate stop in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, along with the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed misgivings about the version of the plan President Joe Biden announced on May 31st, though the White House has said Israel was involved in creating it. Netanyahu is under pressure from the far-right flank of his governing coalition to continue the war. The Security Council measure says Israel has accepted the truce proposal, presses Hamas to do the same, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.

But Netanyahu has not voiced such approval and a senior Israeli UN diplomat did not make that commitment either. Hamas leaders have responded favorably to the resolution and said in a statement that they are ready to cooperate with mediators over implementing the principles of the plan, quote, "that are consistent with the demands of our people and resistance," unquote. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

♦

US soldiers are more likely to die from suicide than in battle. I spoke with USA TODAY Pentagon correspondent Tom Vanden Brook to learn more. Tom, thanks for hopping on today.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Taylor, good to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

Tom, what's the data tell us here on the frequency of soldier suicides?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, this is a study that goes back five years, so it's a five-year period that ended in 2019, Taylor. And what it shows is that suicide was by far the most prominent cause of soldier death. So you were nine times more likely to die by suicide if you were a soldier than you would've been in combat.

That's somewhat surprising, given that even though combat was waning from 2014 to 2019, it was still occurring. So it shows again, as we've reported in the past, that suicide remains a really stubborn problem for the military.

Taylor Wilson:

And, Tom, do we have any numbers since 2019 on this?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, we have some numbers that we know about and the suicide rate has largely increased since then. So it's unlikely that this is a trend that's changed in a positive direction.

Taylor Wilson:

What are some of the factors driving these deaths?

Tom Vanden Brook:

That's what is bedeviling the military and really society at large as well, because suicide has increased throughout society since the year 2000. Some of the concerns have been the operational tempo has been super high in some fields for the military. There's been, as we've reported in Alaska, there was the problem of isolation up there and it was causing a couple of really bad spikes in suicide during this period, 2014 to 2019, and when we were up there reporting back in 2022. So it's a multifaceted problem.

Taylor Wilson:

Tom, you and I have talked previously about this issue. The military has worked to address this problem in recent years. What have they done and have any of these possible solutions worked?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Some things have worked. After our reporting in Alaska about the suicides there they surged mental health resources up there and the suicide rate dropped pretty significantly. So that helped. It's not the be-all, end-all. There's a limited supply of mental health providers for one thing, and it's not the only issue.

And one of the things that I was talking to Army officials about last week, they're treating it in a more holistic way now, that there's not just one cause for this. That they're trying to reach young soldiers and try to prevent some of the harmful behaviors that might contribute to it, like alcohol abuse, the same sorts of things that lead to the sexual assault problem. Heavy drinking, financial problems, those sorts of things. So they're thinking that there may be a way to get at the suicide problem by just attacking all sorts of different issues that may be contributing to soldiers' mental health issues.

And then one specific issue is how they store their firearms, soldiers store firearms. So that if they're stored securely, they may be able to avoid an impulse to take their lives just by having their guns locked up, so there's been increased emphasis on that.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon for USA TODAY. Thank you, Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Thanks, Taylor.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

An FDA panel yesterday endorsed the experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab, which studies showed slowed early stages of the fatal mind-robbing disease. The recommendation came despite questions from advisory committee members about potential side effects. Eli Lilly's drug is an antibody that removes beta-amyloid that accumulates in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The FDA is not compelled to follow the recommendation of the advisory committee of outside experts, but it often does so. An exception came when the advisory committee recommended the agency reject Biogen's amyloid-clearing drug aducanumab, though the FDA in 2021 approved the drug. Biogen halted sales and gave up ownership of the drug earlier this year.

This week the advisory committee unanimously agreed the studies showed that donanemab was effective at treating people with an early stage of Alzheimer's, a stage known as mild cognitive impairment. The panel also said the benefits of drug outweighed potential risks for people with early stages of the disease.

♦

Chronic absenteeism is plaguing schools around the country. I spoke with USA TODAY education reporter Alia Wong for more. Alia, thanks for hopping on.

Alia Wong:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Alia, you wrote that chronic absenteeism has really become an epidemic in America's schools. Strong words. Just how serious has this gotten and what do the numbers say?

Alia Wong:

It's gotten really, really serious. Chronic absenteeism is when a student misses at least 10% of the school year, so that's about 18 days if you're looking at a 180-day calendar. It's not a new problem by any means, there've always been kids who've missed a lot of school. But it has gotten worse in the years since COVID first struck. And while people hoped it would improve as society progressed and it got a better handle on how to deal with COVID, it's actually gotten worse in some cases.

Just one striking statistic to put things in perspective. Between 2018 and 2023, the chronic absenteeism rate nearly doubled from 15% to 26%. So we're still seeing about a quarter of kids missing at least 10% of the school year, and that has all kinds of consequences.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, that's really staggering. Alia. What are some of the factors that may be contributing to this?

Alia Wong:

In my piece I highlight five key reasons. I won't dwell on them now but I'll go through them quickly. One is simply boredom. Kids are just feeling disengaged and not really excited about school, so they don't want to attend. Another is mental health. We know that young people, particularly adolescents, are dealing with really high rates of anxiety and depression, and that is deterring them from school. Relatedly, we know bullying remains a huge problem, and bullying is often a reason that kids cite when saying they don't want to go to school.

Another reason and a ripple effect of the pandemic, it's confusion over the rules. During COVID parents were told, "If your kid has the sniffles or says they're sick or looks like they might have the fever, when in doubt, keep them home." The protocols have changed but parents' perceptions that they should act out of an abundance of caution have not in many cases.

And then lastly, family issues, poverty, just hardship. Hardship makes it really difficult to stick to a routine, whether it's because you don't have transportation to school or because you're just dealing with so much at home, and that's contributing to the problem as well.

Taylor Wilson:

Alia, what's the broader effect of this many students missing school? Both the students who are absent and also the students who do attend regularly.

Alia Wong:

Simply put, when kids aren't in school it's harder for them to learn. During the pandemic online learning was a good alternative, but it wasn't ideal. Kids simply learn better when they're in the classroom, and that's particularly evident when it comes to social and emotional skills, whether that's understanding how to comply with a routine, how to follow instructions, how to treat others nicely, how to problem solve and ask questions. All of these are skills that are really hard to replicate at home or in any place that isn't a classroom with your peers.

And the absences affect all kids, not just the ones who are missing class themselves. And that's because when kids are absent, teachers will have to adjust their lesson plans. They might have to hold off on teaching a particular unit or then they'll have to spend a lot of time on catch-up, and it just delays the learning process in ways that wouldn't happen if all the kids were in school. And what we know from the pandemic is that the switch to online learning and the switch away from classrooms really took a toll on student performance. And schools are still reeling from this, performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels and achievement gaps have really widened.

Taylor Wilson:

Alia, what is the solution here? Is this really a matter of punishments or keeping kids engaged in the first place so they want to show up for school?

Alia Wong:

Punishments and a punitive approach to chronic absenteeism have proven time and time again not to work. And in fact, they often make the situation worse. When you penalize someone for truancy, the last thing they're going to want to do is come to school more. They'll feel like school is an unwelcoming place that punishes them when they do something wrong.

The solution is really improving that family-school engagement. Really just showing families all the beautiful, wonderful, ineffable things that happen during the school day that can't be replicated, that can't be substituted when kids are not in school. That comes down to giving parents opportunities to participate in the school community. It means pairing kids up with buddies if they don't have friends. It means making the instruction and the classroom activities more engaging. It's about providing that one-on-one instruction. Just really using these different levers that have been proven to improve student performance in general can really make a difference in chronic absenteeism.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Alia Wong covers education for USA TODAY. Thank you, Alia.

Alia Wong:

Thanks so much.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Apple shared some of what's coming down the pike at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, which kicked off yesterday, including what's planned for iOS 18. And new developments around artificial intelligence or AI, something they're calling Apple Intelligence. The company's use of AI will extend to emojis and a new version that can be created from scratch using natural search language across themes, concepts, accessories, places, and more. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

♦

Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US proposal for cease-fire in Gaza gets UN backing | The Excerpt